How long did it take?

I have 139 days left, before I FIRE. I'm lookimg forward to being able to answer your question.
 
Last edited:
As mentioned earlier, about the time it took to cross the parking lot...
 
When I shipped my two boxes and left the local FedEx office it was over. I've had a couple chance phone calls from former associates but fail to even see the point. All they did was complain and tell me how good I had it. However some of their questions led me to believe they wanted to find out I was miserable in retirement. I'm not.
 
Before I left. When I turned in my two weeks notice, management left me alone. In fact, our director, put the wrong retirement date on the paperwork. Calendars were hard for him. So the last day, I couldn't do anything since all access and emails were deleted.

All the other project managers but one quit that year. The last was laid off because said director didn't know what they did.
 
For me, the feeling was almost instantaneous and like others have said, my final commute home was a surreal experience. Of course, the fact that the day after I retired I moved 100 miles away, certainly helped.

That being said, it was about a month later that I got a very tangible confirmation of my retirement: I had a former colleague email me asking if I could help him understand some recent work I had done for a key client. Because I had a good relationship with this guy and respected him, I agreed that I would talk with him. Next thing I know, I had a calendar invite for a conference call with him and 3 other people in the firm!

I had an almost out-of-body visceral reaction to the idea of a conference call. I immediately emailed him declining the call and politely told him that I decided it wasn't in my best interest to discuss any of my previous work. To his credit, he emailed me back saying he understood completely and wishing me well.

It was a real eye-opening surprise to me how I PHYSICALLY reacted (I could immediately feel my blood pressure/stress level rising) to receiving this conference call invite. Now, five months into retirement (oh what a veteran I am!), I prefer to stress over whether to have french roast or sumatra coffee for my first cup in the morning!
 
Six months and I still feel like I still should be working . I was working for Big Blue in the Oilfield Services industry they let everyone go over 55 . To avoid lawsuits they gave severance packages and you signed if you took the package you would go away. Felt so bad because they walked me down to an HR specialist I could hardly understand her English , although she was prepared . They had security outside her door she had tissues and bottled water on her desk . I thought they can't eat me so I asked her where she was from . She told me Saudi Arabia , I asked if she was a U S citizen and she told me no ...please continue . They walked me to my truck and made sure they got my parking pass . Mailed my belongings from my desk to me a week later . My wife is still working so I feel some days like I am slacking and should be working .
 
On the surface right away. I was very ready, and strung things out for a package (yay me). Trained my replacement, took a few last work trips that were mainly, in my mind, doing a victory lap/farewell tour.

But it was probably about 3 weeks after I left, when I realized I no longer gave a toss about anything I had been working on, like projects, or platforms, or initiatives, or whatever. Not a care. Things that just a few weeks before I'd been passionate about, telling people to make sure those things stayed on course and were important. Nope, didn't care, blow it all up, go the other way, don't matter. All I care about is a few of the people and want them to be happy and secure, but the direction of anything at the MC? could not care less. And that's after 2.5 decades.

Then at a recent party (now 5 months since ER) with some work friends, the kind you've known across decades, and some of them started the inevitable "so and so's got me working on xyz now" and I had the knee-jerk of "ugh him? that? No!" and then 10 seconds later, back to ... yah i don't care lol, but I hope that works out for you.
 
I was glad to be done and to begin "my new life"

One second - :)
 
It took DW, who ER'd at 58, at least 6-8 months to get over the toxic workplace she left. I imagine if it was a happy place it would have been less. There might be some residual effects still one year later. It takes a while sometimes to get over mental trauma.
 
marko said:
Two years.

My criteria personal is this: if you feel like every day is Saturday/vacation, you're still looking at it from a work context.
Once you stop feeling like that and begin a "this is how I live" feeling, then you're 'really retired' and moved on from the work perspective. YMMV
Click to expand...

I thought I felt retired on Day 1, but using your criteria it really took about 6 months to fully grasp the difference between knowing that I was retired and feeling like I was retired.
 
timo2 said:
It took DW, who ER'd at 58, at least 6-8 months to get over the toxic workplace she left. I imagine if it was a happy place it would have been less. There might be some residual effects still one year later. It takes a while sometimes to get over mental trauma.
Click to expand...

Yep, it can take some time for some folk to purge the toxic stuff. Even after 2 years of retirement, I still have nightmares every 1-2 weeks, but they are fading in intensity and frequency. I do love being FIRE'd! :dance:
 
The people I was closest to at work walked me to my car on my last day. As I pulled out of the parking lot I thought "wow, I really won't ever come back here". On Monday I woke up at 10am feeling totally guilt free and giddy. I knew this was a "permanent staycation". It took about 6 months for me to detox.

18 months in I find I've really overextended myself with activities, but I love everything that I am doing and am hard pressed to figure out what to cut. As a friend who is still working said "you are overextended doing things you love, and I am overextended doing things I hate". I'll take it !

Sit back and relax and enjoy your newfound freedom. It's wonderful !
 
It takes a while to 'decompress'. I've always felt vacation was a joke; two weeks, even two months isn't enough to let your self fully unwind.

Give it a full year. You'll feel retired when you realize there just isn't TIME to go to a job any more because you are both too busy to bother with it and too unmotivated to give that much of yourself to someone else.

I'm now retired coming on 4 years. I have a tough time naming even 3 of the the guys I used to work with and I worked with some of them for 30 years!! If nothing else, it showed me how much they really meant in my personal life. It was strictly professional and I never realized it until after some time went by. Sorta like when I discharged from the military; I was sure I'd remember those characters forever. I ran across the facebook page of one a week ago; a guy I haven't seen in 30 years. GeeZ! He looked OLD! I'm sure I don't look anywhere NEAR that old. Ha!
 
I remember the last drive home...it was heaven. I would say it took about a month to get comfortable with not having any real responsibility outside of the home, though. 6 months after, w*rk was a distant memory.
 
Aerides said:
Then at a recent party (now 5 months since ER) with some work friends, the kind you've known across decades, and some of them started the inevitable "so and so's got me working on xyz now" and I had the knee-jerk of "ugh him? that? No!" and then 10 seconds later, back to ... yah i don't care lol, but I hope that works out for you.
Click to expand...

A year after I retired, I was invited to a promotion party for a previous co-w*rker who I had known for years. It was a terrible, TERRIBLE idea. The only topic that was discussed was w*rk related. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was very much out of the loop and more importantly, I could have cared less. So, I vowed to never attend another party that is hosted by a previous co-w*rker.
 
I was based out of LA but lived in Denver for the last 12 years of my career. After a few celebratory parties in LA (one paid for by me, one paid for by the company) my DS, GF and I boarded a plane and flew home one last time. I had made that flight way too many times the last 12 years. When that plan hit the ground it hit me. I was done and it has been nothing but good since then!
 
World Traveler said:
How long did it take to realize that you were retired? It has been a week and I still feel like I have to go to work.
Click to expand...
About four hours. I sneaked away from work after lunch on my last day before terminal leave. If anyone had noticed, I doubt they would have cared.

As for that "have to go to work" feeling, I strongly recommend that you lay down with a pillow under your head... until the symptoms pass. Repeat whenever necessary.
 
Nords said:
About four hours. I sneaked away from work after lunch on my last day before terminal leave. If anyone had noticed, I doubt they would have cared.

As for that "have to go to work" feeling, I strongly recommend that you lay down with a pillow under your head... until the symptoms pass. Repeat whenever necessary.
Click to expand...

I had a ret ceremony from the AF which was great closure. When it came to the airlines I did what you did and slipped away.

Two weeks into FIRE the feeling is going away. New Years I lit off fireworks. I hadn't done that since I was a kid. We are going to our happy place the end of Jan, Maui!
 
World Traveler said:
I had a ret ceremony from the AF which was great closure. When it came to the airlines I did what you did and slipped away.

Two weeks into FIRE the feeling is going away. New Years I lit off fireworks. I hadn't done that since I was a kid. We are going to our happy place the end of Jan, Maui!
Click to expand...

Hope you get to play a few rounds while there.
 
Highly person dependent. Some people love what they do, their jobs, and upon retirement like to stay connected somehow (perhaps by staying in touch with past co-workers). Nothing wrong with that. Personally, I stayed in touch, but my career immediately became something I "used to do."
 
World Traveler said:
I had a ret ceremony from the AF which was great closure. When it came to the airlines I did what you did and slipped away.
Click to expand...
I'd watched way too many steely-eyed killers of the deep sobbing their eyes out on the podium during their ceremony, and I wasn't going to be one of them.

I also saw way too many man-hours wasted on getting ready for ceremonies, parading the ego-fest, and cleaning up afterward. During the 1990s drawdown it got so bad that some commands were doing retirement ceremonies 2-3 times per week, and larger commands were reverting to weekly group "retirement recognition ceremonies".

My shipmates and I chose a lunch BBQ followed by early liberty.
 
Nords said:
I'd watched way too many steely-eyed killers of the deep sobbing their eyes out on the podium during their ceremony, and I wasn't going to be one of them.

I also saw way too many man-hours wasted on getting ready for ceremonies, parading the ego-fest, and cleaning up afterward. During the 1990s drawdown it got so bad that some commands were doing retirement ceremonies 2-3 times per week, and larger commands were reverting to weekly group "retirement recognition ceremonies".

My shipmates and I chose a lunch BBQ followed by early liberty.
Click to expand...

WOW! 2 to 3 a week. No sobbing eyes here and i'm no steely-eyed killer either. LOL. I debated whether to have one or not. I'm glad I did. My ceremony was simple and short. My parents loved it. All volunteers and no rent a crowd.

For my retirement party I rented a suite at Busch Stadium. We all had a great time and the Cards won.

As for my retirement from the airlines. No fini flight, no water canons from the fire trucks. I just wanted turn in my equipment and retire. I'm feeling the freedom now and I like it.
 
Didn't take very long to "realize" I was retired. Not a very difficult intellectual task. The real problem was emotional. Maybe that's what you meant? In my case the emotional fallout took quite a while. For better or worse my identity was tied very closely to my career, Still very happy to be retired, but took about 3 years, I think, to "create" a new identity for myself, ie who did I think "I" was. During this period I was a bit of a jerk on occasion, I am told. 10 years in and I'm much more comfortable in my own skin.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
Retired 10 years today!
Replies
18
Views
1K
Koolau
Koolau
S
Vacation home/cabin use?
2
Replies
39
Views
2K
kgtest
K
M
Solo Vacations
2 3 4
Replies
80
Views
3K
rk911
rk911
F
Gapapentin and blurred vision
Replies
10
Views
954
Koolau
Koolau
C
2 Years FIRE'd
Replies
4
Views
522
MarieIG
M

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom